I'm curious what the reaction of everyone who follows Formula E is to this possible future. I'll use the rest of this post to spell out my own:

To be blunt, how soon can we get rid of Alejandro Agag as head of Formula E? Until the relentless procession of joke ideas and gimmicks that he continually trots out is eliminated and removed, FE will never be taken seriously as top-level motorsport. Car swaps were a necessity of the technology when the series was formed, fair enough - and they're getting rid of them. But FanBoost is another story, and now they're talking about introducing even worse gimmicks with more effect on the racing?

They have cars that can follow closely and attack. Why do they need some sort of video game boost strip? That's just admitting that the actual racing is going to be poor, so they need some gimmick to make it exciting. If there's a problem with the racing (which there really isn't) they should fix it, not apply some joke of an idea to 'spice up the show'.

I like the idea of Formula E, and I pretty much like the series. But this sort of stuff is why I can't make myself take it as seriously as F1, WEC or IndyCar - a list it should be capable of being named with as the peak of electric racing.

Okay, rant over - what does everyone else think? I'm most interested in hearing from people who actually like and follow Formula E, but everyone is welcome.

FanBoost is the one aspect about FE that I can't defend. I don't expect this one to be defensible either.

But I could be wrong. There's an inherent unfairness to FanBoost, which doesn't appear to be the case with this Hyperboost proposal. The only vaguely similar rule in motorsport that I can think of is the joker lap in World Rallycross - I don't think they've been criticized too much

The only vaguely similar rule in motorsport that I can think of is the joker lap in World Rallycross - I don't think they've been criticized too much

I don't watch Rallycross, but I think the joker lap is pretty silly. So I'm sure I'd criticize it if I did!

Come to think of it however, I do take Rallycross far less seriously than I do the WRC. Maybe that's part of why?

mcdo wrote:

But I could be wrong. There's an inherent unfairness to FanBoost, which doesn't appear to be the case with this Hyperboost proposal.

That is a point. The worst part about FanBoost is indeed that it's a free handout to certain drivers with no basis in skill (it's usually the two championship leaders plus one local driver). HyperBoost is more like Bernie's sprinkler idea - it might indeed make the racing more exciting, but at the cost of being taken seriously as a sport. Maybe I'm in the majority of valuing sporting equality over cheap entertainment, but I feel that the latter is what Agag is trying to cast Formula E as.

I have to wonder, just how young are these "younger fans" they're trying to attract? Six, maybe? I think much older than that and all the gimmicks are not necessary...

Seriously, though, after reading the article this isn't as bad as I thought it would be from the title. Stripping out all of the unnecessary showmanship with the flashing lights and TV screens, it sounds like it's basically twice-a-race hyperpowered DRS. Minus all the flashy lights, it might not be that much worse than IndyCar's push to pass. I'd be okay with this if it was replacing FanBoost (an idea I keep hoping will finally perish) and treated with at least a modicum of decorum, but I see no reason to introduce it on its own, and certainly not to offset drivers no longer changing cars halfway through. Add in all the lights and such, and it's just gimmicky and completely unnecessary.

I'm not sure why Formula E feel they need to liven up the show; after all, races are already action-packed as is, regardless of what one thinks of the quality of the racing otherwise. All of these gaudy "show improvement" things only detract from the seriousness of the sport, and FanBoost is already why FE isn't taken particularly seriously by most. The last thing they need to do is add more gimmicks.

At least it's less absurd than the robotic dog idea, not that that's saying much.

The only vaguely similar rule in motorsport that I can think of is the joker lap in World Rallycross - I don't think they've been criticized too much

I don't watch Rallycross, but I think the joker lap is pretty silly. So I'm sure I'd criticize it if I did!

Come to think of it however, I do take Rallycross far less seriously than I do the WRC. Maybe that's part of why?

mcdo wrote:

But I could be wrong. There's an inherent unfairness to FanBoost, which doesn't appear to be the case with this Hyperboost proposal.

That is a point. The worst part about FanBoost is indeed that it's a free handout to certain drivers with no basis in skill (it's usually the two championship leaders plus one local driver). HyperBoost is more like Bernie's sprinkler idea - it might indeed make the racing more exciting, but at the cost of being taken seriously as a sport. Maybe I'm in the majority of valuing sporting equality over cheap entertainment, but I feel that the latter is what Agag is trying to cast Formula E as.

The joker lap system was also the first thing that came to mind upon reading this article. For those unfamiliar with the format used in rallycross. The joker lap is a short cut built into the circuit that provides a 2-3sec advantage by using the shortcut. Drivers can only use it once in the race (races are a few laps). World rally actually does the opposite with their joker and it gives the driver a longer distance adding 2-3 sec to their lap. if a driver doesn't use the joker lap it is a 30sec penalty added to the total time.

As for formula e using a similar system could work if they did a longer joker lap system and if you took the longer lap you got the 4min boost gain and if you opt out of the long joker you gain the time over the opponent who took the self inflicted longer joker. something like that would be more interesting I think. but its still a gimmick to provide an element that isn't needed.

as exediron stated the cars have the right aero dynamics to induce proper hard fought racing. it doesn't need extra flash to make it great. I wasn't a fan of FE myself due to the previous gen models requiring the drivers to switch cars. That didn't appeal to me but it was needed at the time. Maybe a drive thru charging lane will be developed in the pit road way as the cars drive in to get tires they are charging / topping off charge. That would be something cool to see developed. The new era has batteries that will last the full length of the race now so I am interested to see how that goes this year.

I don't like to write things off before I've seen them in reality - and even then I think you have to give it more than a race or two and be willing to adapt on the fly. The 2016 F1 qualifying changes could've been made less awful had they tweaked it after the first race, although whether it could ever have been made decent I'm not so sure! - but I've got to say this concept doesn't sound particularly promising.

I'd prefer it to fanboost too and to be honest as long as f1 remains 'proper' (as much as it can with DRS and tyre regs), I'm happy to have a gimmick.like this in Fe.

I watch Fe for a number of reasons, one of which is that it is purely entertaining! I can understand that it will make it different to just seeing which driver/team is the best, but the way I see it, it's kind of like watching a monster movie and a trying to win an Oscar drama/thriller - they're both entertaining for different reasons and as long as we have both yo watch, we get the choice of either or we can watch one or the other depending on our tastes.

_________________There is no theory of evolution, just a list of animals that Chuck Norris allows to live.